llegar means: to arrive, to come, to reach
Click to see all conjugation charts of llegar in every tense

In this Spanish conjugation lesson we will see how to inflect the verb llegar in the Imperfecto tense of the Indicativo mood. It means we will see step by step how to create and translate forms of each grammatical person.

This lesson is specifically about the llegar conjugation. For an overview of Simple Tenses conjugation check our Simple Tenses Conjugation Chart.

You may also see the Video Presentation on how to conjugate verbs in Imperfecto. It’s embedded below, but using the above link you may get additional information on conjugation in this tense and explanation of special cases and exceptions.

How to translate Imperfecto to English

Notice that the English phrases provided below next to each conjugation are not direct translations from Spanish to English. They are usually the closest general equivalents. The example differences are:

• In Spanish conjugation, there is the form usted in the third person singular. But this person does not translate to the English third person singular. It translates to the so called formal you and uses the inflected form which is most often represented as he/she/it in English conjugation charts.
• Similar situation happens in the third person plural, where ustedes translates to the English plural formal you but uses the form which corresponds to the they form in English.
• Tenses are used differently in Spanish and English, so the actual translation should always take into account the context and focus on translating the meaning, not just words.
• In both languages each verb may have multiple meanings and not every meaning translates directly to the other language. Here also, the context and focusing on the particular meaning helps to create the most accurate translation.

Note the timeline

The ability to accurately locate the desired position on the timeline is a crucial skill for proper use of tenses. So pay attention to the timeline in our lessons and visualize it while speaking, listening, writing and reading. After some practice you’ll be able to select the right tense to use much easier.

Step by step instructions

Imperfecto belongs to the simple tenses group, which means that all of its conjugated forms are one word long. There are also compound (compuesto) tenses in Spanish language, where each inflected verb form consists of two words.The verb llegar has regular conjugation in the Imperfecto tense of the Indicativo mood. It means this verb simply follows the basic rules for its group (-ar) without exceptions. This tense is really easy, as only three exceptions exist! The basis for this conjugation is the stem of the verb, so we begin by splitting the infinitive into a stem and an ending. It’s very easy to do. Just remove two letters from the end of the infinitive form to get the ending — one of -ar, -er or -ir. What’s left is the stem. So in case of the verb llegar it’s easy to see that:

• the stem is: lleg-
• and the ending is: -ar

Use the stem lleg- in each subject as the basis for the conjugations, the common prefix that each of the forms begins with. Next, add to this regular stem the endings specific to each person. Check out the image showing all the endings. Notice the shapes and colors of the letters. They are arranged to help you find patterns and make it easier to remember these endings.Each grammatical person has a specific ending in each of the three conjugation groups -ar, -er, -ir. Add the regular ending -aba for the first person singular to create llegaba:

• yo llegaba – I arrived

And once more add the regular ending -abas for the second person singular to create llegabas:

• tú llegabas – you arrived

Similarly add the regular ending -aba for the third person singular to create llegaba:

• él llegaba – he arrived
• ella llegaba – she arrived
• usted llegaba – (formal) you arrived

And once more add the regular ending -ábamos for the first person plural to create llegábamos. Note difference in spelling

Only the first person plural has an accent here.

This difference exists only in case of the verbs from the -ar group. Other groups always have an accented i in the ending in this tense.So add the accent to get llegábamos:

• nosotros llegábamos – we arrived
• nosotras llegábamos – (feminine) we arrived

And similarly add the regular ending -abais for the second person plural to create llegabais:

• vosotros llegabais – (plural) you arrived
• vosotras llegabais – (feminine, plural) you arrived

As before add the regular ending -aban for the third person plural to create llegaban:

• ellos llegaban – they arrived
• ellas llegaban – (feminine) they arrived
• ustedes llegaban – (formal, plural) you arrived

¡Ya está! The conjugation is now complete. The final result looks as follows:

yo	llegaba	I arrived
tú	llegabas	you arrived
él/ella/usted	llegaba	he/she/it arrived
nosotros/nosotras	llegábamos	we arrived
vosotros/vosotras	llegabais	you arrived
ellos/ellas/ustedes	llegaban	they arrived

Click to see all conjugation charts of llegar in every tense
But do not end your session yet – it’s important to repeat and practice the material in order to remember it. Check below for some links.

Next Steps to Perfection To practice this conjugation and test yourself try this Conjugation Exercise or the Memory Game To see other conjugation lessons for this verb choose another tense: PresentePretéritoCondicionalFuturoPretérito Perfecto CompuestoPretérito PluscuamperfectoFuturo PerfectoCondicional PerfectoPretérito Perfecto Compuesto (subjuntivo)Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto A (subjuntivo)Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto B (subjuntivo)Futuro Perfecto (subjuntivo)  For exercises and examples related to llegar visit our Exercise section To see conjugation charts in all tenses for llegar visit the Conjugator To explore other learning materials visit the Study section

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